Happy
Birthday Marines!!! We just completed our annual Marine Corps Birthday
Dive celebrating the 237th Birthday of the United
States Marine Corps. We had a good turnout and the weather was
great. We got to see a lot of cool critters on this dive and to top
things off we got to see two MV-22 Ospreys fly overhead as we were just
coming out of the water!!

Three tank dive 24
June 2012 and Maeda Point 30 June 2012

Sorry Dive
Bums Iíve been a bit slow in updating the website. Weíve had some great
weather these last few days and weíve been on some awesome dives! The
first set of photos are from
our three tank dive to Diamond Beach and Clothesline June 24th. Al and
Roger were finishing up an O/W class and took the class on a boat dive.
After demonstrating their final skills, Al took everyone on a great tour
and found some nice garden eels and a friendly taco (octopus).

The second
set of photos are from our dive/snorkel at Meada Point June 30th. Itís
always fun to take some friends and family out especially when you beat
the crowds at Maeda Pt. The fish and critters seemed to be extremely
photogenic on this dive. Even the barracudas wanted their photos taken.

I sure do hope that
the Dive Gods smile upon us for the upcoming 4th of July weekend!

Three tank dive 24 June 2012

Maeda Point 30
June 2012

Water Treatment
Plant 24 May 2012

With terrible weather earlier this week we
kept a close eye on the weather forecast, the METOC Marines quickly
became our best friends!!! Their predictions were spot on, Thursday was
perfect, light variable winds, no waves, no surge and the sun was out!!

What an awesome way to start off the
Memorial Day Weekend. After a brutal week at work, we took a much
needed break and rallied the troops and made our way to Sea Wall for
great dive. A group of ďJointĒ Dive Bums (divers from each of the
services: Marines, Navy, Air Force and Army) headed to the WTP for a
quick dive after work. This was the first dive on Okinawa for most of
the divers in our group. By all of the excited discussions after the
dive I could tell they all had a blast, we all had a great time!!! The
water was a balmy 77 f and the vis was a decent 30-40 feet (not bad for
poor weather earlier in the week). The sun was bright and highlighted
the vast soft coral garden covering the reef. The critters seemed to be
out enjoying the break in the weather too. We saw a large school of
Razorfish, several different species of Clownfish, Moorish Idols (Gill),
Pipefish and countless other beautiful reef fish.

Kerama Islands May
6, 2012

What a great
weekend, with over a week of rain and poor weather itís about time we
got a break. On Sunday, we headed out to the Kerama Islands for a three
tank dive. On the first two dives I documented Al and Rogerís tec
skills for their upcoming Tec Certification. After they completed their
skills I got some me time behind the camera. Thatís when I got the
shots of the turtle, nudiís and clownfish. Our third dive was going to
be a drift dive so I wasnít expecting to get too many good shots
however, the current wasnít that strong just around one knot. We
dropped down to around 60 feet and thatís when the fun began.
Immediately I spotted a young Lionfish just hanging out waiting for some
small unsuspecting fish to swim by. Then we ran into a large green
moray eel hiding behind some soft coral. And then the coup de grace, we
saw four white tip reef sharks!!! Iíd like to thank
Reef Encounters for
a great dive, Doug awesome job putting us on some great sites!

15 April 2012

It was an honor to be one of the photographers on
this yearís USS Emmons Memorial Dive. This was my third Memorial dive
on the USS Emmons. For me, it all started in 2007 when a few divers
laid a wreath on her hull 120 feet below the sea. This year marks the
67th Anniversary of the sinking of the USS Emmons. I would like to
thank Kurt for setting up this yearís dive. Kurt you truly outdid
yourself this year, it was a great ceremony. And once again Chuck and
North of Nago
provided outstanding service making this one of the most cherished dive
trips of the year.

On April 6, 1945, the USS EMMONS was on patrol between
Ie Shima Island and the northwestern tip of Okinawa. In one of the
largest Kamikaze attacks ever, the Japanese launched over 350 suicide
planes. At approximately 1730 the first of Kamikazes hit the USS
Emmons. Casualties were very heavy that day: Seven officers were
either killed or missing in action, six wounded, fifty enlisted sailors
were either killed or missing in action and sixty five were wounded.
Although the USS Emmons was severely damaged and the remaining crew was
ordered to abandon ship, she refused to sink. Her burning hull drifted
all night towards Ie Shima Island. Ie Shima Island was still held by
the Japanese and early on the 7th of April the order was sent out to
scuttle the Emmons before she could beach on the island. Currently she
rests in 145 feet of water off of Kouri Island.